VfL Bochum wants to take tough action against ticket black marketeers. The club has again appealed to fans and members.

Bundesliga football club VfL Bochum has once again taken a clear stand against black market ticket trading at its home matches. The relegation-threatened club from the Ruhr region appealed to its fans and members in a statement on Tuesday not to support illegal trading via the internet at inflated prices and not to buy tickets via certain platforms.

The VfL punishes black marketeers with stadium bans, the withdrawal of season tickets and even the cancellation of membership. In addition to the controls in cooperation with the public order office in the immediate vicinity of the stadium, the 17th league was able to obtain the names of the first purchasers or resellers in around 50 cases by tracing specific ticket or seller information, according to the statement. Cease-and-desist declarations and fines have already been demanded against them.

According to VfL, up to 100 reported cases of forged, manipulated or multiply copied print@home tickets were registered for the DFB Cup match against Borussia Dortmund on 8 February alone. The holders of these tickets have been denied entry to the stadium, and many of those affected have already filed charges with the police. The club has already forwarded the information on these cases of fraud to a law firm for the purpose of taking legal action.